Are you tired of taking flak for your faith? Do you find it just because you're a Christian,

you have an impossible situation with your family or your work? But what do you do? Don't

give up. God has a word of hope for you today.

Welcome to this edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily

programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram,

where in the middle of his series, lift the awesome power of encouragement, based in the

book of First Thessalonians. Well, in just a minute, Chip will begin identifying four

unique ways we can help someone whose faith is under intense attack. In fact, he's got

a lot of helpful insights to share. So let's get started. Go to First Thessalonians,

chapter 2 in your Bible, as Chip begins his talk, how to lift up those who are down.

I'll never forget the first day of Sociology 101. I was 18 years old. I had just become a Christian

about seven or eight months before. I had never opened a Bible in my life until I was 18, and so I'd

been reading it now about six or seven months. I was overwhelmed with what I was learning. I had

zeal. I was excited. The thought of forgiveness and peace and purpose. I was a zealous brand new

whistling in the hall of Christian. And then I went to Sociology class. You got to remember,

this is 1973. The sixties are rounding to an end. Kent State is barely in the rear view mirror

for those of the era. I walk into class, and people are filing in, and I notice there's an

unusual guy sitting on the desk up front. He has for the day, extremely long hair, which was

really unusual then, for a teacher at this school. He had frayed jeans, a rather unusual shirt,

a headband, sandals, and he was sitting cross-legged on top of his desk.

He was warm. He was friendly. He said nothing for the first five or ten minutes. We all sat

down, and he sat there, bow-legged, you know, crossed, you know, looking at it, saying nothing.

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